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IN Pietermaritzburg :

Expert advice for DIY - paving preparation

Paving quotes currently range form around R250 - R450 per square meter (sqm) We recommend you only use reputable paving companies. *This is only an online guide.

If you have an existing driveway, then you need a professional to remove it, however if you feel confident enough to remove it yourself then you will find the following information useful. If the existing driveway is tar or concrete, you are going to need excavation equipment and we recommend hiring a mini digger from a local tool hire company. You may also need a pneumatic drill or ‘jackhammer’ to break up the surface before collecting it in the digger. Consider hiring a builders skip to load the debris from the old driveway into.

If the old driveway consists of slabs, flag stones, cobble paving or concrete or pebble paving then you may wish to remove them by hand, this will usually take longer but you will save on the hire of the digger and drill. If the ground beneath your driveway is firm, you will need to take off at minimum, a further 20cm from the surface of the driveway to allow room for the 10cm of base core, 5cm of sand and finally, the height of the paving stone itself (usually 5cm). Please note, if the paving stone is higher than 5 cm you will need to deduct extra from the surface of the drive to accommodate the higher blocks.

If the surface beneath your existing driveway is not firm, then you will need to excavate more ground and replace it with extra sub-base core, applied and compacted in layers of no more than 10cm thick. This extra sub-base core will stabilize the surface and compensate your driveway and reduce the chance of your newly installed paving of sinking.
Geotextile is a special fabric which has been designed for geological purposes, completely rot proof yet permeable to water. Geo textile fabric is available in woven and non-woven forms and its main benefit in relation to paving is the prevention of weed growth and stops the subbase mixing with the core. Place the Geo textile layer on top of the subbase across the entire area of the soon to be paved driveway. Hold the Geotextile layer down with a few blocks to stop it moving until the core is in place to stop it moving, remember to remove the blocks or whatever you used to hold it down before you compact the core. Next you will need to compact the core layer, followed by the bedding sand layer, prior to packing the pavers.